


totems

by Skyuni123



Series: 17 (should have been 25 but i messed up) Days of a Self-Flagellating Christmas [16]
Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Pre-Slash, Psychological Horror, Totems
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-23
Updated: 2017-12-23
Packaged: 2019-02-18 23:41:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13110981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skyuni123/pseuds/Skyuni123
Summary: Eames discovers his totem.





	totems

Eames discovers his totem almost by accident.

He’s young, dumb, and most people would say that he’s a bit of a cunt (and honestly, they’re probably right). 

There’s a good reason for that though, he’s not yet suffered through the infinite dream-deaths that lead him to become overly snarky and nihilistic in his later years.

He’s in the arse-end of his twenties and he gets called up to do a forging job on the eve of his thirtieth birthday.

He supposes that it’s better than getting pissed and dozing off on the couch in front of his television.

 

Dom Cobb’s a big fan of the totem thing. Eames doesn’t really believe in it, so he doesn’t use one. That seems to work just fine, which is all that matters.

 

The team is Dom, his wife Mal, Eames, a chemist, James, and some new guy called Arthur. Arthur’s very pretty (because Eames isn’t  _ blind)  _ but he acts like he has a stick constantly up his arse and he’s a stickler for the rules.

Arthur  _ loves  _ the totem thing, even though he’s new and inexperienced and has probably been on like  _ one  _ dream job so far.

  
  


The job… doesn’t go great.

 

The mark is a higher-up in the casino game in Las Vegas. He’s a terrible person, as a lot of wealthy people tend to be, with a penchant for anything pretty that moves. The job’s supposed to be a simple in-and-out, with chance of error.

Eames has done  _ a lot  _ of things in the name of the illegal career he has, (including stealing an ambassador’s llama from an embassy and fighting several versions of himself at the same time) but none of them have quite come close to forging a woman, playing Arthur’s girlfriend, and  _ both  _ of them trying to seduce the mark.

Arthur gets flustered when he’s trying to flirt. It’s almost adorable. He’s going to have to nip that habit in the bud, though. It’ll be dangerous if he can’t keep composed when he needs to. 

 

The pair of them are standing on the casino floor, bickering. The mark has somehow slipped away from them,  _ despite  _ their trying, and that’s a problem. They’re partly here to distract the projections, keep them away from Dom, Mal and James, who are trying to break into a vault on the other side of the dreamscape, and they can’t let the mark get away.

 

“He went up to the offices.” Arthur reasons. “He got overwhelmed, wanted to get away for a bit. It makes sense.”

“I think he’s still here.” Eames replies, because he  _ knows  _ the sort. “Went out to have a ciggie, some fresh air, and he’ll be back in a minute.”

Arthur sighs. “The mark’s not a smoker. I think he’s in his office.”

“Fine.” Eames says, getting more than a little agitated for reasons he can’t place. “That’s fine, you go up to the offices, I’ll stay here. Capische?”

Arthur huffs. He pulls a red poker chip out of his pocket and tosses it at Eames. “Fine. Here. Don’t get distracted. I’m off.” 

 

The chip’s for the highest denomination that the casino has. If Eames wasn’t working, and wasn’t in a dream, it’d be a damn good present. Here, though, it’s practically worthless. “Cheers, darling!” He calls after Arthur, who is already pushing his way through the crowd away from him. “I’ll buy you something nice!”

 

And of course, Arthur’s right. The mark  _ is  _ in his office.

On the phone to James, their chemist, who’s been working for the other side the whole time. The mark’s projections catch them all and torture them, keeping them close to the edge of death but not letting them slip away.

 

A six hour flight in real life is several days in dream time, and they don’t waste it.

When Eames finally wakes, throat raw from screams he didn’t actually vocalise, and hands locked around a poker chip that doesn’t actually exist, he can hardly believe that the airplane cabin is real.

 

When he gets home, after he’s drunk himself half to death, he buys the same poker chip off eBay. Maybe totems have a place in this world after all.

**Author's Note:**

> hit me up on [ tumblr ](http://villainousfilmmaker.tumblr.com)


End file.
